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Portion of Maharani’s College heritage building collapses
Earlier, on October 18, a portion of the fort of Ambavilas palace which is also a heritage site had collapsed.
A portion of the Maharani’s Science College in Mysuru collapsed owing to the incessant rains over the last few days, people in the know of the matter said on Friday. No injuries have been reported so far, said the people citied above.
Earlier, on October 18, a portion of the fort of Ambavilas palace which is also a heritage site had collapsed. The Mysuru palace board, responsible for the maintenance of the fort, started repairing it. The city has at least a hundred heritage buildings which are a century old and were constructed by erstwhile Kings of Mysuru without using cement.
According to experts, the non-maintenance of the heritage buildings resulted in the collapse of the college building. This is not the first such incident as previously portions of several heritage buildings have collapsed in Mysore city, including Lansdowne Building, Devaraja Market, and Fire Station. “The heritage buildings in the city have reached a dilapidated state without proper maintenance and their preservation is necessary. For this, the government should reserve money in every budget”, heritage expert professor Rangaraju said.
Initially, chemistry department head K K Padmanabha noticed a crack in the wall of chemistry laboratory on the first floor, following which he informed principal Dr D Ravi of the same.
“When I was informed by the department head, I visited the laboratory. I immediately told them to disconnect the power supply and lock the laboratory. A few minutes after I came out of the building, the first floor collapsed,” Ravi said. “We had taken timely precaution otherwise the impact of tragedy could have been worse,” he added.
The college authorities had scheduled a ‘bhoomi pooja’ for the heritage building’s renovation on October 22, he said.
In another development, following heavy rains, a portion of road in Chamundi hills also collapsed on Thursday night, people in the know of the development said.
“In the heritage city of Mysuru, one by one heritage buildings are reaching dilapidation every day without proper maintenance. The main reason behind this is the lack of funds for proper maintenance.” Prof Rangaraju said.
“If the government allocates ₹ 500 crore in the budget every year, heritage buildings can be preserved. The city has three types of heritage buildings. Among them, religious buildings (temples), commercial buildings (offices and other public buildings) and conservation architecture (fort etc. buildings) can be seen here, all these are the gift of the Maharaja of Mysuru,” he said.
In the 1790s the whole city was contained within the Mysore Fort. Later people had to leave the fort due to several diseases. According to heritage experts, the city expanded since that time only.
“Concrete was not used for the construction of buildings in the past. Instead, they used lime, mud, bricks and stones. If it rains more, the buildings store more water and eventually the entire building reaches a dilapidated state. But now there are scientific methods that can protect them and the same should be used also for their preservation,” said the professor.
